Pyschology of Power

Scott Allison, professor of psychology, offers the following comments in response to numerous sexual assault allegations against famous men in positions of power making headline news, including most recently, the firing of Matt Lauer from NBC News:

“Many careers are ruined or irrevocably altered because of sex.

In looking at the details of these kinds of cases, we repeatedly ask ourselves two questions: Why do unarguably intelligent and successful leaders put themselves into these kinds of situations? And why are we continually surprised by these revelations? Shouldn’t we expect it by now?

Understanding the psychology of power is key — research shows that power is intoxicating and leads to feelings of entitlement to break the rules, to exploit others with impunity.”